I'd rather use the actual fruit, and I've tried the vanilla before, it's ok, but it takes away from the chocolate, I'd say add an ounce or 2 more nibs if that's the route you're going to take

Jay, what would you think about soaking the nibs in Organic Vanilla Extract? It's high in alcohol and almost all commercially available Chocolate has a little in it? I haven't tried to soak my nibs yet, but have only used them in 10+%ABV beers and they seem to work nicely. Will try the soak and see how they differ. I just read the rest of the thread. I get that the vanilla would take away from the Chocolate, but I'm still going to try it on a different beer.

Anything with US-04 is quick, not the speed of light, but quick. I'm still working on making the same beer twice and having it taste the same. I just passed 60 brews in under a year. Extract to ten gal all-grain batches. Maybe next year I'll try and recreate them in the same order.

I feel like mine aren't going to be consistent until i build a fermentation freezer for them. I believe all that's hindering me now is consistent fermentation temps/yeast count. Until then, I'm just happy if they're similar.

I agree. I checked gravity it was 1.030 @ 68 deg. I have a refrigerator that I'm using for keg and my LHBS is out of temp controllers for 50 duckets figure it'll pay for itself fast. Wow the sample tasted every bit of good. Goodwork eviljay